Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

knowablemagazine.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 531 posts

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#371

Post by refurb »

quadrangle wrote: post #136
sarchertech wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. That's hugely hyperbolic. But in the city there really are constant sirens, car horns, diesel trucks, construction noises, roadway noise etc... The most comprehensive study done on this (admittedly a long time ago in 1970) shows a clear correlation between po…

Cities aren't loud, cars (and trucks) are loud https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTV-wwszGw8 Video discusses this thoroughly. There ARE quiet cities amazingly enough. And suburbs are a HUGE source of the noise IN the cities they surround because it's the car traffic from suburbs into the cities that makes much of the noise. Cities ARE loud, but they don't HAVE to be.

Not true at all.

Currently live in a dense city in Asia. Remove all the personal vehicles and it would still be noisy as hell. Just business vehicles delivering food, removing trash, etc. are a decent amount of noise. The high building density reflects and concentrates the noise.

Then add in construction, road work. Even the worker moving trash bins around by hand every evening is loud.

Pure fantasy to have dense city living an little noise.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#372

Post by refurb »

bogota wrote: post #84
gonehome wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find by far the biggest disruption in US suburbs is lawn equipment. Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. Often for hours. Moving from Palo Alto to SF things got way quieter.

They may be louder but do you have a dump truck waking you up at 4am several times a week? I really don’t know what to do anymore. Obviously they need to pick up trash that early to beat the traffic and save a few bucks /s. But the city doesn’t care and I’m constantly told that condos/apartments are a more sustainable way of living. Thats great but I’m about done with this nonsense and about to move out to the burbs…

Move to the suburbs?

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#373

Post by jbjorge »

unrealp wrote: post #154
Sciz0r wrote: post #47

there's a muscle called the tensor tympani the way I learned conscious control was through yawning. this muscle can be strengthened then can protect from hearing damage.

Can this be learned? i see that on hearing loud noise there is a reflex that uses this muscle to protect the ear. Can one learn to do this consciously?

I discovered that I could control it in my teens. I rather opt for earplugs - the muscle gets tired as all other muscles during use, and the amount of dampening is negligible in my case.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#374

Post by suyjuris »

skizm wrote: post #356

This is why airpod pros or similar noise cancelling headphones are worth their weight in gold. After having them in a city environment for more than a week, I realized I'd gladly pay north of $1k for them. If I lose them I will instantly go into a physical Apple store and buy a new pair so I'm not without them for even a day. I can't go back to the normal city noise levels every again. I don't even have music or anyt…

I always have earmuffs on my desk, they are great when something noise is happening outside and I need to concentrate. Also cheap.

> This is why airpod pros or similar noise cancelling headphones are worth their weight in gold.

In case anyone else was wondering: the weight in gold is about 500$.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#376

Post by jjt-yn_t »

andersco wrote: post #323

The sharp beeping sound made by trucks backing up, and now also basically any type of construction vehicle when it moves, is in my opinion one of the great examples of a ham-handed solution to addressing a safety issue with no regard for noise pollution. While it is supposed to warn someone in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle, I can after hear these sharp alarm-like sounds over a block away, often inside my apar…

No post body was provided.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#377

Post by bavell »

lowercased wrote: post #351
imglorp wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's yard equipment. Mowers, blowers, weeders, chainsaws, chippers etc. are usually not muffled or so high powered you can hear them for miles away. It's air and noise pollution. Electric equipment might replace some of it soon but not all. I love heavily wooded suburbs, but logically speaking it's not efficient and not sustainable compared to more centralized housing, for many reasons. Just on the noise front…

We live in a small subdivision. Around half acre lots - very flat. We have a lawn service, and they use riding mowers and are done in ~20 minutes. We have neighbors either side. One is retired. The other has a flex schedule. They both love doing outdoor stuff, like... riding mowers. Each take ~2 hours to do their lawn. This is their enjoyment . It's like a vacation for them. Sitting on a loud engine, driving around..…

I can relate to this so much right now haha. Some houses next to me are having work done (prep to sell) and it has been nonstop noises the last few months...

Just in the past few days: Roofers came on Saturday morning and spent the whole day banging and hammering... Pressure washer guy all day Sunday... 8am this morning, the lawn service guys are already out in full force... All of this literally across the street, ~100ft away

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#378

Post by ectopod »

Reason077 wrote: post #355
lowercased wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We live in a small subdivision. Around half acre lots - very flat. We have a lawn service, and they use riding mowers and are done in ~20 minutes. We have neighbors either side. One is retired. The other has a flex schedule. They both love doing outdoor stuff, like... riding mowers. Each take ~2 hours to do their lawn. This is their enjoyment . It's like a vacation for them. Sitting on a loud engine, driving around..…

At least mowers and other garden tools will all be quiet and electric, some day. Most of the new ones for sale already are. It’s an air pollution issue too. Emissions from the old ones aren’t really regulated and many of them really stink!

Electric leaf blowers are still noisy.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#379

Post by bigblind »

I've always wondered why there's not more R&D going into making power tools quieter, and I wonder if a "sound tax" on products could incentivize it. When selling any item that makes noise, where the noise isn't the intended result of the item (so it doesn't count for, say, speakers), you'd pay a small fee for each db over 70db, or some other level, determined to cause hearing loss, or noise pollution in a somewhat large area.

Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)

#380

Post by KineticLensman »

rwmj wrote: post #335
mechanical_bear wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fucking loathe leaf blowers. I can tell what day of the week it is by which neighbor is going for an hour or two straight with the leaf blower. Get a damn rake!

I don't even understand the point of them. They don't clear up the leaves. A leaf vacuum cleaner would make more sense.

> A leaf vacuum cleaner would make more sense.

I used one once. It was fairly useless. The bag was too small to collect any sensible amount of leaves and it choked on the small twigs and other stuff that is often mixed in with leaves if there are mature trees in the vicinity.

Post reply on HN